First of all, I didn’t watch the debate so my opinions are untainted by facts, policy discussions or direct personal observations. All of my opinions derive from what I have read about the debate from people who watched it. At least they said the watched it.

Half of them must be wrong because they disagree with the other half who said they watched it.

Anyhoo, I have read a lot of different reactions and discussed is with the voices in my head and we reached the following conclusions:

1. Trump won the debate because he didn’t lose.

2. Cruz came in second because he won the debate. He had by far the best performance and he held his own when he went mano a mano with The Donald.

3. Marco Rubio came in a distant third because he held his own against Cruz and Christie.

4. Everybody else lost and really should drop out before they embarrass themselves any worse.

5. The media are in the tank for the Democrats.

6. The media are either colluding ala Journolist or they are operating from a hive mind like the Borg:

Meanwhile, here is a picture neither the Democrats or the GOPe want you to see:

That picture was taken at the Trump rally in Pensacola the other night. As you can see, the place is pretty well packed. On a week night in Florida, where nobody else is campaigning yet. That was the rally with the girls singing and where Trump complained about the microphone.

Other candidates (including Hillary and Bernie Sanders) are holding rallies in high school gyms (and smaller venues) in Iowa and New Hampshire where they will be voting in just a couple more weeks. Bernie is the only one drawing any crowds, and his crowds are tiny compared to Trump’s. Trump is generating more enthusiasm than all the other candidates combined.

This is nasty!! I can’t believe I used to admire this man! What happened to the Glen Beck of a few years ago? The one whose Washington DC rally I attended in 2010? That man seems to have been replaced by a monster!
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Trump didn’t “pimp” anything. I am from Baltimore, and live in Maryland, and I was insulted by what Ted said about New York values. Hey Ted, you know what rhymes with Cruz? You are such a smart guy, figure it out.
The Donald is sending lots of people off the rails, but truth be told, I never thought Beck had a secure hold on the track.

Someone on Hannity’s radio show today said New Yorkers on 9/11 represent New York character, not values. New Yorkers are tough and have a sense of community. At the same time, they elect scoialists like DeBlasio and drive the state blue in every election. They’re also not going to vote for Trump if he’s a Republican.

I live on the Upper West Side, which many people assume is the most liberal neighborhood in the city. Surprisingly, there’s robust support for Trump in the neighborhood.

As far as DeBlasio goes, if you recall shortly before the election when Weiner couldn’t keep his dick in his pants and got kicked out, DeBlasio’s poll numbers went up 27 points literally overnight. I think you might be hard pressed to find a New Yorker who believes he wasn’t appointed so NYC could be used as a test kitchen for the great Progressive experiment.

I watched most of it – here are my observations (like anyone cares, but I’m an egomaniac):

1. Cruz did not win, he looked more like the ‘plastic’ Rubio then he has before. He has solid responses and some good lines, but the run-in with Donald (New York Values and Citizenship) hurt him – on the citizenship question, he doesn’t lose, but ANY question whatsoever on this topic is bad for Cruz.

2. Rubio had/has GREAT answers and some really good lines and they are all delivered like a polished seasoned absolutely ‘plastic’ (not real, imitation) craven politician – you can almost smell the the plastic burning in the background of how much he tastes the need to win this election… it’s sickening in my opinion.

3. Christie did WAY better then expected – I really liked the two or three lines:
– kicking Obama’s butt out of the White House at the end of the year
– Storytime State of the Union Speech where everything in the world is going AMAZING
– observing Rubio slam Jeb for listening to advisors who said Jeb should pounce on Rubio, then Rubio pounces on Christie the same way

4. Kasich bores me to tears…. lotso policy – no one cares this time

5. Ben Carson is high/asleep/medicated and has no understanding of the gravity of this position with relation to Global Security – really, you’re gonna waste time talking about atmospheric nukes that will cause an EMP? (I know it’s possible, because I saw it in The Matrix – but still)… bring it down ONE notch Bro.

6. Jeb looks like Angry Barbara Bush – he’s just an Angry Granny Candidate that is floundering about looking for his wooden spoon to whack the baddies that messed up his perfect holiday.

LAST – Usually Donald wins by not losing… but in this particular debate he was quite good (deft even) – the New York answer was very good (although I would have borrowed someone’s comment here about how the First Responders were writing their Social Security numbers on their forearms so cleanup crews would be able to identify their bodies – that is just SO HEROIC and would make for Great New York Values).

I agree with your summary. Usually, I don’t think Trump “won”, but he did last night, his best performance so far. Cruz was off last night, and Marco is just trying too hard. Anyway, for Marco, I will never get past the Gang of Eight.

Haha… From now on all good things I read on TCH are automatically credit to Venus (although you weren’t always Venus!). So it is written, so shall it be!

Seriously, had Trump gone that route, with a specific example of personal heroism, it would have been a drop mic moment. His response was great, but I could have imagined even more, Cruz put a big target on himself, a rare mistake for someone so smart – so much for Harvard I guess.

jeffhas ~ I love your observations of the debate. I saw only a few minutes of it – and those moments convinced me I had nothing to lose were I to turn away. I saw Carson and begged him to Shut Up and leave the debate stage forever.
I frankly don’t understand why Kasich and Carson are still on the main stage and Fiorina and Paul are relegated to the early show.
Your comments about Rubio are the best I’ve read . . . the best.

Pat Robertson is hosting Trump as his guest at his Candidate Forum series next month and his freaking theater (on his RegentU/CBN campus) venue only holds about 500. What do you think my chances are grabbing a ticket? I can see that theater from my house! So close, but I think the mega-CBN donors/local politicians/students get firsties. It will sell out in 30 seconds. Robertson’s already had JEB! and Kasich, didn’t sell out.

Politically the best thing for the government to do is make the Bundys look like harmless idiots, which is mostly what they are anyway. Taking them seriously would give them a stature they don’t deserve.

More than a dozen schools in Maryland as well as schools in Delaware and Virginia have been affected.

Tyler Heights Elementary School in Annapolis was one of the schools to get the threat. The 600 students were evacuated. No bomb was found.

Doyle Batton, with the Anne Arundel County Office of School Security tells FOX45 News that the call “started out as a male, and they said an explosive device had been placed in the school. Somewhere along the line, the female voice added to the information and indicated they had a certain period of time to evacuate the school before it would detonate.”

Former F.B.I. Agent Tyrone Powers says terrorists may be watching the reaction to the threats. He says, “Organizations like this have probed before by making calls to see what our response time is. We know before they have watched the response times of police departments.”

Powers says they’re wondering, “How quickly do they get there, how many officers do they send, and what do the officers do when they arrive at that particular scene?”

No bombs were found in any schools. No one has been hurt. Federal authorities are investigating.

This is every kind of messed up, but let’s keep inviting these terrorists disguised as refugees/ immigrants into the country, because what is important is being PC, not protecting our children.

This happened in the LAUSD a couple weeks ago. Threats were called in from a foreign country. LA schools went on total lockdown. The good news is that cities seem to change tactics constantly based on public opinion.

I have a friend that works in a school in the Orlando area. Back before Christmas several school there had bomb threats and were evacuated. I wonder if there are other areas where this has happened and if so is somebody looking at the big picture??

I hope someone is looking at the big picture, and I am seriously wondering why this isn’t in the mainstream news.
The way our mainstream propaganda suppresses things for the benefit of this administration, and some politicians, it wouldn’t surprise me to find out it was deliberately not being reported.
Because if they report something concerning ,it might influence an election? That is what our so called journalism has come to in this country?

Well we don’t know, the incidences may not be connected. Local and federal authorities may have been all over it and have followed all leads and found them to be isolated and not connected. I don’t know, but I’m curious if there are other local reports of similar things.

I’ll ask my son and his wife, both teach/work in local school districts, if there have been any threats around here. they have many, many friends who also work/teach in Chicago and surrounding school districts.

Did Cruz really think his sarcastic rant was going to go over well with New Yorkers just because he called it an ‘apology’?
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Take that, Ted Cruz! Gov. Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio respond with real New York values

For someone who has so much hostility toward our city and state, he spends an awful lot of time begging for money from our residents. According to the FEC, Cruz has raised close to half a million dollars from New York donors this election cycle alone. If he had any class or possessed true presidential timber, Ted Cruz would offer New Yorkers a real apology instead of sarcasm ­ not because we need it, but to prove he’s not a hypocrite. His rhetoric this week is unfit for anyone who hopes to lead the American people.

Also, he’s got the whole I’ll trash talk Wall Street in public, and take their money in private, while forgetting to fill in the form that said I took their money. Really? Really? That’s another thing they don’t get about Trump. He says yes, I made donations to both sides of politics. I’m a businessman, I don’t take sides, I do business with whoever is in power at the time. And their accusations die. They accuse him of being full of anger. Why yes, he says, and if you aren’t angry about how this country is being trashed then there’s something wrong with you. He turns accusations into positive talking points, because he refuses to cower in the face of the crybullies. Which is why I say Go Donald.

Well, everyone knows what he means by NY values – which are really not unique to New York or New Yorkers…an illustration would be the grocery store check out scene from Terms of Endearment – one of my favorite movies. Not sure what he was hoping to achieve – attention? He certainly has that now. Not sure if this was a smart move or not…I suppose that remains to be seen. Trump has certainly said things that are equally offensive/outrageous. Just to be clear, I happen to like both of them.

I routinely check a website FREEPREVIEWTV. I have never been able to afford the premiums, so have always relied on the freebies…now, I have an Amazon Firestick complements of my daughter, and can sign on to either her HBO GO account or my son’s Netflix to catch up on what I’ve missed. Just finished Californication this week, will probably move on to Nurse Jackie next.

If you have Amazon Prime you can do Showtime or Starz on a month to month subscription. Wait til the end of the season sign up watch 12 episodes and a few movies then cancel do the same thing a year later. 12 episodes of Homeland cost 24, a one month subscription is 8.99. I have FIOS in the living room and still have cable wanted to add cable to three rooms. The equipment charges are nuts. All TV’s are smart or have a fire stick. Huluplus/Netflix/Showtime together are cheaper than equipment. I was looking to rent Guardians of the Galaxy because of a sleep over. 4.99 for 48 hours or 8.99 for a month of Starz. I found a couple of movies on Starz to watch. I might sound cheap but I am so annoyed with cable. When my contract is up I am cutting the chord. Also T-Mobile gives unlimited streaming. I can watch tv on the bus for free. I like FX and AMC but I can buy The Walking Dead episode by episode and still save money and own them without ads the next day. I find it offensive that I pay for msnbc, cnn, espn, telemundo and a host of other channels that I never watch. I watch local games. Espn is 6 dollars a month. No thanks. Astonishing how slow cable companies are to react. They offer a la carte I might stay.

I got some plastic ID card from HRC people so I can be a card carrying supporter. I politely quit the party and asked to be removed from her endless fund raising in 08 this is the first time I’ve been hit up this season. They must be going back through the rolls out of desperation.

The first blog I discovered was Hillaryis44 seems (much to your chagrin I bet) to have gone full on Trump. A few that remain loyal but mostly it’s a lot of criticism.)
I was all in back then now the sound of her voice is nails on chalkboard. Her saying to the UN that America would use shame and peer pressure to silence those critical of Islam was repulsive.